Kingerski: What Crosby Contract Really Means for Penguins Future

Some of you may want to sit down to read this. The Pittsburgh Penguins will not enter a rebuild.

In the homey press conference Monday, Sidney Crosby affirmed what president of hockey operations/GM Kyle Dubas told us in April. The Penguins would not enter into a tear-down, strip it clean, knock it over, rebuild. Dubas reasoned that the people–most notably Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, and Erik Karlsson– were too good and too respected to abandon by surrounding them with castoffs and try-hards.

“It would be foolish not to try to get those younger players in and around those players like Sid (Crosby), Kris Letang, and Bryan Rust. People who come in every day and operate at an extremely high level and get the most out of themselves,” Dubas said on April 19.

After swapping 2023 first-round pick Brayden Yager for the Winnipeg Jets’ 2022 first-round pick Rutger McGroarty and seeing the youthful talent on display over the weekend at the Prospect Challenge in Buffalo, the Penguins have some youth on the way. Not yet an abundance, but enough to begin a revamp.

Big Money: Penguins’ Salary Cap Space

Currently, projections show the NHL should raise the cap to about $92 million next summer, the second consecutive substantial increase and $4 million more than the current $88 million.

Crosby confirmed he spoke to Dubas several times during the summer and contract negotiations. The headline that many missed was that Dubas reassured Crosby the team would be competitive. In turn, Crosby figuratively forwent millions of dollars to keep the Penguins’ salary cap structure flexible.

Is it possible that Dubas executes one of the greatest escapes since Houdini and the Penguins avoid painful rebuilding? We think Dubas has plenty of assets to trade because he overstocked the Penguins roster for this training camp. He could well pocked a few more draft picks by early October.

It certainly seems that many in the Penguins organization believe in Dubas. Not even Karlsson, who forced a trade from San Jose so that he could chase a Stanley Cup, has requested an out.

“It’s just trust and belief, knowing the organization and knowing the group of guys we have (who have been) in so many different situations throughout my career–I think there’s there’s always been expectation here, and I love that,” Crosby said at his media gathering Monday. “I love the expectations … So I think all those things combined just make me think that (a quick turnaround is possible).

To repeat, the Penguins are not rebuilding, at least not for a few years.

Dubas has not only built a sellable surplus in the immediate, but he’s also staggered the roster and player contracts to expire in the next 12 to 24 months.

The Penguins have $67.82 million committed for 16 players next summer. Add defenseman Jack St. Ivany, and the Penguins have 17 players under contract for 2025-26 at $68.59 million.

Correction: Also, add $916,667 for Jack Johnson’s buyout.

A few young players, such as Owen Pickering and Tristan Broz, could, or should, be ready to make the jump to the NHL, pushing the Penguins to 19 players at $71.3 million. If you’re bad at math, that’s nearly $21 million in salary cap space to fill just a few spots. Adding to the good financial news, if goalie prospect Joel Blomqvist supplants either Tristan Jarry or Alex Nedeljkovic, the salary cap space will only grow.

Yeah, that’s a lot of scratch to play with.

How to Use Cap Space?

If Dubas and his management team want a player, no team in the league could outbid them.

Hello, Mitch Marner. What do you say, Brock Boeser? Both star players are 27 years old (so, next year, they’ll be 28) and in their prime. That would seem to be an easy sales pitch to make. How do you feel about getting paid about $80 million over the next seven years and helping Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin win one more time?

The pillars of the Penguins roster should be intact next summer, regardless of the coming wins or losses of the next six months. Next summer, there will be a better platform, including young players, upon which Dubas can build.

Perhaps he will exclusively stick to the youth movement, forgoing big capital splashes. But Crosby just made another huge and selfless investment in the Penguins’ future. He didn’t do it because he was in love with fries on his salad or the city’s consonant black and gold uniforms.

Crosby did it to have another chance at winning. That’s what Crosby cares about. And now Dubas should be honor-bound to match Crosby’s investment with a roster investment when the time is right.